New Beginnings
by x2writers
Summary: Years after Max and the Flock go back to their normal, average lives, three new 98% human, 2% avian experiments escape from a new-and-improved School. What happens when a sarcastic fighter, an intelligent assistant, and a quiet eccentric meet? And will they be able to avoid the deadly and bloodthirsty Erasers?
1. Chapter 1 - Dani

Do you ever get the feeling that you're being watched? Like, all the time, with no way to escape or talk to anyone without another person threatening to put you in a cage?

(Just me? All right, then.)

That's what my life was like for a little while, until I experienced something that no human has ever experienced at all.

Granted, I'm also not 100% human, so that was more of an understatement.

For a moment, all eyes were on me. Those bloody whitecoats and their clipboards-always waiting around for something interesting to happen, while I just wanted to rip their throats out.

Every part of my body ached from yesterday's new "test". And regular teenagers who go to an actual school think running the mile is hard...

Try running through a maze while a dozen people are watching you, with their weird contraptions at the ready to shock you whenever you stop to catch your breath.

Yeah. It doesn't sound fun, does it?

Well, I guess I should start from the beginning. So, my name is Dani. Full name's Danielle Aleksandrovsk. I don't know, I think that's my last name. I saw it in a whitecoat's head. But that's a story for another time. Don't call me Danielle, though. I'll punch you.

Back to the point...

I've been in a cage all my life. What I know is that I was born in Bulgaria and transferred at the age of six to a lab in England. I was forced to learn English and now here I am talking to you in English. Thanks whitecoats. Much appreciated. (Eye roll).

I was transferred again to the U.S. when I turned thirteen. When I was fifteen, I made my grand escape. Getting into people's heads and mucking about is kinda my specialty.

I discovered it the hard way, though. Getting chased and attacked during one of their "tests" kinda pushes those things out of you.

Escaping from a heavily-guarded, completely locked-at-all-times facility doesn't seem like the easiest thing in the world.

Unless you're me. това е животът (tova e zhivotŭt-aka "this is life"), my friends.

But on that one (and probably only) fateful day, while it seemed like every whitecoat in the building had their eyes on me...

Let me tell you what happened.

I stared back at them, grabbing one of the taller whitecoat's hands as he came near me. I heard the crunch of his bones as I clenched my fingers...

...I could suddenly see what was going on inside that mediocre brain of his.

His response was to flail his hand around and kick my cage until there was a nice Dani-sized hole in it.

Time to muck about.

Smirking, I wrapped my fingers around his ankle and tried to concentrate. Not my fault if he forgets to breathe, right?

I jumped out as he fell to the ground, grabbing his chest. Most of the whitecoats seemed to crowd around him, while a few realized that I was halfway out the door and began to chase after me.

 _"I got this,"_ I think to myself, sprinting through every inch of the winding hallways like I was in some sort of marathon. _"Just need to get to the door, and-"  
_  
"Stop right there!" I heard a loud, breathy voice somewhere in the middle of the path I was taking.

лайна. Laĭna. Shit.

I turned to face the oncoming whitecoat and ran at him. He stepped forward and I slid under his legs, knocking him down. His lanky body remained on the floor as I got back on my feet, slowly approaching him as he struggled to stand up.

"Nice try," I teased, pulling his arm back and twisting it. I tried to focus again.

 _Set him on fire. Make him think he was about to douse his body in gasoline and light it. Maybe this disgusting place will burn with him.  
_  
I opened my eyes, but I didn't see flames anywhere.

The whitecoat pulled away from my hands, taking me by the waist and throwing me over his shoulder.

"This was fun, Danielle, but playtime is over." He started retracing his steps to the cage where I had ran away from him in the first place. I was mad enough already, but that sentence that included my full name was about to become the last sentence he's ever spoken.

"I don't think so," I murmured. Picking my body up, I swung my elbow into the base of his neck, hearing a satisfying crunch. He gasped and his grip on me lessened. His hand went to his throat and I elbowed him again, aiming for his jaw this time. Feeling his head snap to the side was the only sign I needed to get off of him.

I slid my body away from his shoulder so that I landed in front of him. reaching into his pocket, I felt a leather wallet. Sighing, I drew it out.

I swung around, leaving a nice kick to his side. He knelt to the ground, gasping for air as I ran towards the exit.

Several cages from the back rooms rattled; other experiments made strange, terrible-sounding noises. I turned my head around for a moment, watching some dog-like creature jump onto one of the other whitecoats.

I laughed at my unbelievable luck, only to be face to face with the door of the building when I turned around. The impact of my face smashing into the surface of the hard metal seemed like karma for all the crap I did to that poor guy who's probably choking on his own blood by now.

I stumbled backwards and covered my nose with my hand, feeling blood dripping onto my fingers. I recovered from my blonde moment, awkwardly pinching my nose and hoping that nothing else in this world would attack me anymore.

I studied the doors as I heard footsteps not far from where I was standing. Not many locks held it shut, so I lifted my leg and slammed it on the door as hard as I could. Feeling the metal creak beneath my foot told me that it was working. I picked my leg up once more and stomped again, sending the door flying open.

I felt a rush of fresh air and breathed happily. I heard voices calling and getting closer, so I looked over my shoulder and decided to break into a dead sprint. No use getting caught now.

I was in a yard. Not the type of friendly yards that humans have. But a training yard. One used for Erasers. Let me explain...

Erasers are giant men who are half wolf, half human, and all blood lust. Not terrified yet? Well, you should be.

I was smaller, thus faster than them.

Bolting for the fence, I noticed it was electrified. The muscles in my back were calling to me, aching to spread themselves out and catch the breeze. I heard bulky footsteps pounding from the grass and sent a glance back. They were closer than I had thought.

Making a last minute decision, I ran at them. I sped at one who was shorter than the others, jumping onto his shoulder and then attempting to land onto the ground behind him.

Before I hit the ground, an Eraser grabbed my ankle, making me land with my face in the dirt. I rolled over, just to get kicked in the middle of my back and have the wind knocked out of me. My eyes went wide and I gasped for air, clawing at the Eraser's foot that was still on my spine. He let go and I flipped onto my back, kicking him in the place where the sun don't shine. I then grabbed his ankle and twisted, making him fall to the ground.

I stood as more surrounded me, their faces morphing into a long snout with teeth that were a tad too big for their mouths. One still in her human form ran up to me and punched me in my jaw. I screamed as she sent me flying into the fence, which then shocked me. Remember when I said the fence was electrified? Yeah, well, I wasn't kidding.

The shock sent me forward as more morphed. As I looked around me, I knew it was now or never. Get out now or become lunch. I'd rather not test out that latter.

Knowing this was it, I ran as fast as I could away from them, seeing slightly raised ground. I snapped out my wings. Jumping into the air, I pushed as hard as I could.

I felt something wrap around my foot and I saw the short Eraser that I had taken out. He started to sprout fur just as the others had.

I flapped harder, repeating up down up down in my head like a mantra. _"Up, down, up, down, up..."_ I shook my foot until I felt his hand let go and I rose higher now that I had less weight to carry.

 _"Oh god, о, Божe (o, Bozhe-oh god) I was actually flying,"_ I thought, and forgot to flap which sent me down a few feet.

Snapping out of my amazement, I realized they had guns pointed at me. Little red dots cluttered my shirt and my eyes went wide. "Gotta fly, boys. Time's a-tickin'," I yelled down to the Erasers. Winking, I banked to my left and tried to propel myself as fast as I could out of there.

I barely made it past the top of the trees, and the branches snagged at my skin and scraped me as I flew by. I tried to go higher, but my muscles just weren't working right.  
I glanced at each of my wings, making sure all was okay. My auburn and caramel feathers were ruffling with the breeze, and then it hit me: I was free. The past fifteen years of my life, caged and tortured, and now, just like that I was free.

Stopping in a clearing, I started to lose altitude. I was attempting (and failing) a landing.

I landed while still moving and my legs tried to keep pace, but failed. I went tumbling over myself till I landed, breathless, right on my back.

I giggled. I actually giggled and laid there, laughing and crying, because for once in my pathetic life, I was free.

I took a deep breath and leaned forward, putting my head on my knees. And before I knew it, I was sobbing. I couldn't stop for some reason, so I just sat like that for what felt like forever, sobbing my little heart out.

I laid back, closing my eyes.

"свободен съм," I muttered to myself. Svoboden sŭm. I'm free.

So, that brings me to now. Still in a clearing, still laying down. I'm telling you this because it is just the beginning of what is to come.


	2. Chapter 2 - Lauren

_Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.  
_  
If I had to listen to the sound of that old clock up on the wall for one more minute, I thought my head would actually explode.

I tapped the eraser of an old, chewed up yellow pencil onto the metal table in front of me, staring down at pages and pages full of equations and paragraphs in other languages.

 _"You have the greatest IQ out of anyone we've ever had here,"_ I remember one of the workers telling me. But don't be fooled. Those kind voices aren't as kind as you may think. _"I want you to complete these worksheets for me. Then we'll see if we can give you an even bigger challenge."  
_  
"Like using my mind to kill all of your impossible mutants?" I said to myself, gnawing on the side of the pencil. "Sure, okay. Right after they rip out my insides."

I took the pencil out of my mouth and examined the new teeth marks I had left in the wood. My pale hand almost looked white from the dingy lighting they had inside this torture chamber-uh, I mean "testing room". You'd think all the sunshine in the place I used to live would've at least given me a nice tan. But nope. Still pale as a ghost. And no thanks to those damn whitecoats.

Everyone back in Italy walked around, visiting the coliseum and the Leaning Tower. But me? I was locked in a cage, constantly being poked and stabbed like I was an experiment.

And in a way, I kind of was.

Two years ago, they stuck me in a plane and brought me thousands of miles away to the United States of America. Home of the free and land of the brave or something like that. I may be smart, but I know more about Europe than America.

They wanted to use my gigantic brain capacity to help these scientists in their studies. Well, that day hasn't happened yet. I'm still in this dismal room, working on pointless papers and biting a disgusting pencil. They were impressed that a fifteen year old was able to answer questions from a college textbook, but sometimes those walls felt like they would close in on me at any moment.

I removed my small pair of reading glasses, setting them down on the table and rubbing my tired eyes. The steel door at the corner of the room creaked open, and I quickly pushed my glasses back on and wrapped my fingers around the pencil that I just wanted to throw across the room.

"So, Lauren, how is everything working out for you?"

 _Terrible_ , I thought.

I faked my best "don't worry, be happy" smile and looked up at the test administrator. He looked like just got into a bar fight. Or a car crash. Maybe some gang beat him up on the streets.

I wiped the smile from my face, thinking I was starting to look more like a creepy doll than a girl with the highest intelligence these people have ever seen.

"Great," I lied, glancing down at the millions of papers on the table. "I could use a new pencil, actually." I forced a subtle laugh, running my thumbs over its rough edges. "But I can see you've suffered some sort of head trauma. Maybe a broken jaw and some fractures in your left phalanges."

I didn't look up at his face, but I could tell he was staring at either me or his injuries.

"Oh, your knowledge never ceases to amaze me, Lauren..." he said dreamily, in a way that a father would. "I just had a Code White over in the cage room."

My heart sank down in my chest. Or at least it would have, if it was possible.

 _Code White. That means someone escaped.  
_  
They came up with that term after six kids escaped from this place. Not once. But twice. And maybe more than that. For some reason, they just couldn't stay away. At least, that's what everyone else told me.

The whitecoat sat in the chair across from me, pulling a brand new pencil out of his pocket and handing it to me like it was some sort of peace offering. _It may look nice now, but soon enough, it'll look exactly like this one._ I took my old one and tossed it into a nearby trash can, knowing I'd make it in without even looking at it.

Instead, the chewed up piece of wood fell to the floor. I whipped my head around, looking down at the tiles and watching the pencil roll underneath the steel door.

"Don't worry. We need you for something bigger than playing silly games like that."

"You do?" I asked, hearing my voice change into a more high and pitchy sound. I cleared my throat. "I mean, you do?"

The whitecoat nodded. "It's simple."

I sighed, gathering all of my finished worksheets. "But, what is it?"

He grinned, rubbing his sore jaw. "I want you to track down our runaway." 

"Sure, let your smartest experiment do your dirty work for you," I muttered, hearing my sandals scrape against the tile floor. They didn't even tell me what this person looked like. Am I just supposed to tackle the first person I see that has wings?

My heart secretly went out to all the people who tried to escape from here. Most of them didn't succeed. As for me, well, I never tried. And in return, I was released from a cage in what was almost a year after I transferred here. They used me as a guinea pig to see how much I knew. How much information my mind could handle (which would be a lot). They treated me well enough that I never thought of escaping. I didn't see any reason to escape.

Until now.

The Erasers' yard was coming into my view. Those ugly creatures that they tried to pass off as half man, half wolf...I've read books about better looking mutants than that.  
No matter how much they knew of my IQ, they still wanted nothing to do with me. Much like everyone else they send here.

I heard a high-pitched scream and a loud zap. The fence must have been activated.

 _I got you now...  
_  
I started running, bracing myself for what I was about to see. Erasers growled in pleasure. I could see a tiny, winged girl in the distance, trying to get away from them.  
"Oh man..." I whispered, hiding behind a tree. I gazed at the battle as the girl removed her foot from one of the Eraser's claws, flying higher into the blue sky. I wanted to join her, as crazy as that may sound.

"No, you're insane..." I muttered. "You can't leave, cause they'll know. They don't need another Code White...there's been too many of them. I've never been one of them." I pushed my bangs to the top of my forehead, taking a deep breath. "Then again..." I faced the fluffy clouds above me, starting to daydream. "You wouldn't be the first person they'd suspect."

A heavy breathing erupted from behind me, and I spun around, nearly tripping over my feet.

"Is that so?" one of the Erasers growled. "Go on. Be my guest. Watch the big man weep over your betrayal." He turned his back to me, crossing his grotesque hairy arms. "That is...unless someone stops you."

He whipped around just in time to see my eyes growing wide in fear. " _Merda_..." I curse under my breath. The whitecoats are lucky they never heard me use such words around them.

I took off running, feeling this weird sensation that I haven't felt in years.

My long-lost and beloved grey and white wings unfolded from my back. I stumbled for a bit before jumping into the air, letting the wind do the rest of the work.

The other Erasers paid no attention. The one that overheard my conversation with, well, myself, was standing there, dumbfounded, desperately trying to dig his claws into my exposed feet.

Only problem was, he was too late.

The lab was getting farther and farther away. _This is it. I'm actually doing this.  
_  
I had escaped. It had been so unbelievably easy, I had no idea why I hadn't done it before.

I thought back to what I had said to myself back in the yard. And one of the Erasers had heard me.

I groaned, slamming my hand onto my face. "Sono stupida..." I heard my muffled voice say. " _Molto_ stupida." For the first time in a very long time, I was insulting myself: I'm stupid. _Very_ stupid. If he thought he was gonna get away with telling the whitecoats I had left, then he had another thing coming.

I pictured the sorry excuse for a wolf-man in my head. I hoped something would just come out of nowhere and attack him. Let one of the other Erasers do it, for all I care.  
And for a moment, I could've sworn I heard one of them scream out in pain. Even though I was way beyond them at this point.

That's another thing about this crummy place. Along with the DNA of any creature they decide to put into you, you receive some sort of ability that you never believed was possible. It's like saying, "Yeah, we may lock you in a room and make you solve equations, but you can give someone a heart attack just by thinking about it." It's like the gift that keeps on giving.

But, maybe they should've reconsidered the "powers" thing. I mean, it only makes escaping that much easier. At this point, I'd be a better whitecoat than any of the others there. That is, if they were nicer and treated their cross-bred mutants like pets rather than minions. If they just let everyone have their freedom and fresh air every once in a while, there wouldn't be a Code White at least twice a month.

I was still deep in thought as I neared a large, open space in the middle of the woods. _I'm the Code White they didn't expect. Lauren insert-last-name-here, the girl who never put up a fight. The girl who followed everyone's instructions cover to cover like it was a handbook. Until today.  
_  
Even if I had the skill to crack the code's on the lab's computers, I never dared to try it out. My name was always Lauren. No last name, no middle name. Not that I know of, anyway.

 _"The Code White they didn't expect..."_ I repeated in my head. I said it over and over again, letting the words flow out till my throat felt sore. The wind pulled my grey wings back, but I caught myself. I slowly descended into a dead-looking tree, standing on a sturdy branch and stretching my wings out.

"Those files can put in a new last name," I heard myself say. I leaned onto the old scratched up bark, catching my breath. "That's it..." I breathed, looking down at the bright green grass below me. A girl with brown and red wings laid there, appearing to be asleep.

"In honor of this, and whatever happens next..." I continued. "I hereby give myself the last name of _White_."

I laughed at my own dumb joke, blaming all those documentaries I had to watch for my queen-like announcement.

And it looks like this queen has been crowned the ruler of a brand new kingdom.

For now. 

For now, I was still standing in the tree. The girl with the wings below me had started to sit up. I wasn't the only one who was free.  
And I made sure I'd let her know it was _her_ that got me out of the School.


End file.
